exercise · all tools

Body Hide

Depth · what it can open●●○○2 — reflective
Holding · facilitation1 — host
Trust · group readiness★★some
Disclosure · what is sharednone

Four players try to hide a fifth using nothing but their own bodies while everyone else looks for any visible patch of clothing, shoe or skin. Each round removes a hider, until the group works out that a wall or a corner is allowed.

Hold with care
  • The source names the point plainly — it is an exercise in learning to touch each other — and the hidden person is enclosed by four others while the rest of the group inspects them for exposed skin
  • Being the hidden one should be volunteered for and easy to decline; the source asks for volunteers and does not say more
  • Not appropriate where being closely surrounded is claustrophobic, or where the group's norms about touch have not been established

Practical

Time
min
Group
6 · small-group, large-group
Settings
in-person
Mechanisms
behavioral-rehearsal, somatic-awareness
Change scope
state · repeatable

Instructions

Where
improvencyclopedia.org/games/Body_Hide.html Improv Encyclopedia, open
Availability
Open online — published at the link, free to read

Source link checked 1 Sep 2026 — reachable

This directory describes and points home; the instructions stay with the people who made them.

Origin

Unattributed; compiled by Improv Encyclopedia — Improvisational theatre

In this directory via Improv Encyclopedia

status: checked · added 2026-08-31